Digital Commons Network^™

Genetic Identification Of Spotted Owls, Barred Owls, And Their Hybrids: Legal Implications Of Hybrid Identity, Susan M. Haig, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman, Pepper W. Trail, Liv Wennerberg

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Recent population expansion of Barred Owls (Strix varia) into western North America has led to concern that they may compete with and further harm the Northern Spotted Owl (S. occidentalis caurina), which is already listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Because they hybridize, there is a legal need under the ESA for forensic identification of both species and their hybrids. We used mitochondrial control-region DNA and amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AFLP) analyses to assess maternal and biparental gene flow in this hybridization process. Mitochondrial DNA sequences (524 base pairs) indicated large divergence between …

Subspecific Relationships And Genetic Structure In The Spotted Owl, Susan M. Haig, Thomas D. Mullins, Eric D. Forsman

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Hierarchical genetic structure was examined in the three geographically-defined subspecies of spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) to define relationships among subspecies and quantify variation within and among regional and local populations. Sequences (522 bp) from domains I and II of the mitochondrial control region were analyzed for 213 individuals from 30 local breeding areas. Results confirmed significant differences between northern spotted owls and the other traditional geographically defined subspecies but did not provide support for subspecific level differences between California and Mexican spotted owls. Divergence times among subspecies estimated with a 936 bp portion of the cytochrome b gene …

Spectacular Recovery In The Ord River Catchment, A L. Payne, I W. Watson, P E. Novelly

Agriculture reports

Regeneration work on severely damaged country in what is now known as the Ord River Regeneration Reserve (ORRR) commenced in 1960. The ORRR is in the East Kimberley area of Western Australia with an associated small area in the Northern Territory. The work included strip contour cultivation and seeding (which proceeded at various levels of intensity during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s), fencing and destocking of cattle by mustering over many years, and the eradication of donkeys.

Pastoral Resources And Their Management In The Pilbara Region Of Western Australia, A M E Van Vreeswyk, Alan Payne, K A. Leighton

Agriculture reports

This report is a product of the rangeland survey of the Pilbara area of Western Australia which was conducted jointly by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Land Administration ... in 1995-1999. This report is primarily intended to be used to assist pastoralists in station management and to assist others involved with the pastoral industry. The survey area includes all of the De Grey, East Pilbara and Roebourne/Port Hedland Land Conservation Districts, part of the Ashburton Land Conservation District.

A Comparison Of Land Use And Nonpoint Source Pollution In The Cedar River Tributaries In Iowa, Chad Levi Fields

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A comparative water analysis on major Cedar River tributaries was conducted to determine nutrient and sediment concentration, nutrient loads, and watershed land use during the spring and summer of 2002. The Cedar River watershed is located on a primarily agricultural land, and has a drainage area of20,242 km2. The watershed extends from southern Minnesota to southeastern Iowa, where it joins the Iowa River which subsequently flows into the Mississippi River. Past studies have concluded that the Cedar River contributes much of the nutrients entering the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. These nutrients then contribute to the zone of …

Modeling And Measuring The Dispersion Of Odors From Hog Confinements, François Béra

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A comparison was made between predicted and measured odor concentration downwind of two hog finishing confinements. Two Gaussian dispersion models, STINK.BAK and AERMOD, were used. The experimental cases examined odor emanating from a mechanically-ventilated facility and a curtain-sided facility during summer 2003. A field olfactometer was used to measure odor concentration. The odor concentrations served as input to STINK.BAK, which then estimated the odor emission rate from the confinement. AERMOD used this emission rate and other meteorological data to predict the peak concentration of odor around the confinement over the sampling hour. The calculated odor emission rates are slightly higher …

Lewis And Clark And The Geology Of Nebraska And Parts Of Adjacent States, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Anne P. Diffendal

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark undertook their journey with the Corps of Discovery in 1804–1806 in order to explore the area that the United States had purchased from France in 1803. Then known as Louisiana, this region included almost everything west of the Mississippi to the continental divide (illustrated below). In order to find the best route across the continent, President Thomas Jefferson charged Lewis to follow the Missouri River to its headwaters and then locate rivers flowing down the west side of the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River and into the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson's written instructions further specified …

Lewis And Clark And The Geology Of The Great Plains, Robert F. Diffendal Jr., Anne P. Diffendal

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark undertook their journey with the Corps of Discovery in 1804-1806 in order to explore the area that the United States had purchased from France in 1803. Then known as Louisiana, this region included almost everything west of the Mississippi to the continental divide. In order to find the best route across the continent, President Thomas Jefferson charged Lewis with following the Missouri River to its headwaters and then locating rivers flowing down the west side of the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River and into the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson's written instructions further specified that the …

New Studies Initiated By The U.S. Geological Survey: Effects Of Nutrient Enrichment On Stream Ecosystems, Mark D. Munn, Pixie A. Hamilton

United States Geological Survey: Publications

In 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program began an intensive study of nutrient enrichment—elevated concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus— in streams in five agricultural basins across the Nation (see map, p. 2). This study is providing nationally consistent and comparable data and analyses of nutrient conditions, including how these conditions vary as a result of natural and human-related factors, and how nutrient conditions affect algae and other biological communities. This information will benefit stakeholders, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and its partners, who are developing nutrient criteria to protect the aquatic health of streams …

Geophysical Characterization Of A Former Refinery Site, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Baraka Damas Kinabo

Masters Theses

Lakeside, a former refinery site, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is contaminated with hydrocarbon products. The contamination resulted from the refining and storage activities that took place at the site for over 50 years. The contamination is scattered in isolated pockets.

In an attempt to better define the contamination zones and therefore assist the remediation efforts, this study uses shallow geophysical methods including Electromagnetic induction using the EM 31 system, Magnetic, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), and Resistivity methods. The hand auger was used to further characterize some EM 31 anomalies. The EM 31 conductivity results show elevated values resulting from the biodegradation …

Laboratory Testing Of Select Geotextiles As Biointrusion Barriers And Sediment Filters, David R. Beck

Masters Theses

It has been proposed that placing a geotextile over sediments with adsorbed contaminants can prevent bioaccumulation of the contaminants in larger animals by isolating the benthic organisms living within these sediments from fish. In conjunction with a field study carried out at Gull Creek, a laboratory study testing two geotextiles as biointrusion barriers and sediment filters was conducted.

Constant-head permeameters were run for seven days using cores from the field study area with a geotextile placed over the cores. For biointrusion barrier tests, medium sand was placed over the geotextile and spiked with nutrients. Following each trial, benthic organisms in …

Body Mass Of Late Quaternary Mammals (Data Set), Felisa A. Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Kate E. Jones, Kansas State University, Tamar Dayan, Pablo A. Marquet, James H. Brown, John P. Haskell

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this data set was to compile body mass information for all mammals on Earth so that we could investigate the patterns of body mass seen across geographic and taxonomic space and evolutionary time. We were interested in the heritability of body size across taxonomic groups (How conserved is body mass within a genus, family, and order?), in the overall pattern of body mass across continents (Do the moments and other descriptive statistics remain the same across geographic space?), and over evolutionary time (How quickly did body mass patterns iterate on the patterns seen today? Were the Pleistocene …

Efficient Grazing Systems: Putting Pieces Together, Charles T. Dougherty

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Pros and cons of grazing systems are well-known to this audience. Efficient grazing systems, however, are a different story. What is an efficient grazing system? I think we could argue that topic until the cows come home and I do not believe we could come to any agreement. I am going to approach the subject of efficiency from several angles but you will probably see them differently. Economic efficiencies will not be covered.

Kentucky Goat Friendly Pasture Concepts, Terry Hutchens

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Goats are accomplished grazers of grass and browse plants. In addition, they can be managed within a grazing system both intensively or extensively as long as quality forage is made available. Goats are facultative browsers, they prefer to feed at eye level and upward and then feed on forage from the top of the plant down. Goats prefer to move freely from plant to plant-removing foliage from select portions of plants. Foliage meals are dictated by quality factors that insure adequate protein and energy levels. Each stem or leaf is clipped with precision leaving the forage residue standing equal in …

Effective Use Of Pastures For Horses, Robert Coleman

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Pastures can serve two very necessary functions for the care and maintenance of horses. Not only do these areas of grasses and legumes provide a place for the horse to exercise, they can provide a significant portion of the horse’s nutrient requirement. Horses evolved as a grazing animal, so it is reasonable that many classes of horse can be adequately maintained on well-managed pastures.

The Economics Of Integrating Crop Land To Mig Grazing, Edward N. Ballard

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Illinois soils vary in their properties and producing capacities. Large areas of the state have soils that are among the most productive in the world. Other areas have soils that, because they are too steep or droughty or have some other undesirable features, are not the most productive for corn and soybeans.

However, over the past 30 years there has been a trend to place more acres in Illinois in corn and soybeans and less acres in small grains, legumes and pasture crops. Government incentive programs have encouraged more acres to be place into corn and soybean production.

Environmental Benefits With Improved Grazing, David Stipes

Kentucky Grazing Conference

The public is becoming better educated about the environment and will continually question activities that are perceived as being harmful to soil, water, air, plants, people, animals and other concerns. Livestock producers who implement well-planned grazing management systems have an excellent opportunity to compliment both production and natural resource conservation considerations. All segments of the population involved in production agriculture will be held accountable for environmental impacts that result from their operation. A proactive approach is needed by livestock and other agricultural producers to sustain the protection of the environment that is in harmony with a healthy ecosystem. All those …

Grazing Systems For Beef Cattle, John Johns

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Beef cattle represent the most important grazing livestock enterprise to Kentucky producers. As of January 1, 2003 there were 1,120,000 producing beef brood cows on 39,000 farms in the state. In addition, more than 600,000 yearling cattle are also produced. The number of total beef animals is increasing as producers put more economic reliance on beef and forage programs. In many cases, beef cattle represent the only practical method of converting high quality forage to income for producers.

Grazing Systems For Dairy, Donna M. Amaral-Phillips

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Forages which are grazed can provide anywhere from 25 to 100% of the forage consumed by growing dairy heifers, dry cows or the milking herd. In this paper, I would like to specifically deal with devising a grazing program for a dairy lactating or milking herd. Lactating dairy cows are a “high performance animal” and, as such, any decreases in the availability or quality of forage can quickly decrease milk production. Thus, the goal when designing a grazing system is to provide adequate quantities of high-quality, vegetative forage to prevent decreases in performance. These decreases in performance occur in all …

Optimize Grazing--Minimize Stored Feed, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Grazing Conference

The title “Optimize Grazing – Minimize Stored Feed” appears to be a bit redundant at first glance. Indeed if we optimize grazing, we will certainly minimize the amount of stored feed required to winter our animals. Putting both concepts together can serve as a reminder of the tremendous benefit of both.

Grazing represents the cheapest source of nutrients for our beef industry. Several studies have shown that the best predictor of profitability in the beef industry is cost of stored feed. In Kentucky, specifically, that means cost/amount of hay required to winter on beef animals.

Sorption Of Phosphorus By Soils : How It Is Measured In Western Australia, Michael D A Bolland, D G. Allen, N J. Barrow

Bulletins 4000 -

Most soils used for agriculture in Western Australia had insufficient indigenous native phosphorus P for the introduced agricultural plant species used in the region so fertiliser P had to be applied. This bulletin covers how water-soluble P WSP fertilisers are made, and how the P in the fertilisers dissolves and reacts with soil in the year of application and in the years after application, how soils sorb P and procedures and soil tests used to estimate the capacity of soils to sorb P.

Using Cesium 137 To Understand Recent In Cave Sedimentation In The Tongass National Forest, Southeast Alaska, William Curry

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Removal of vegetation and subsequent erosion in karst regions such as central Kentucky or southeastern Alaska often leads to increased sedimentation in karst features such as caves and dolines. This sedimentation can impact the ground water by altering flow paths and the bio-geochemistry of the karst aquifer itself. Various methodologies have been used to obtain quantitative erosion and sedimentation rates for surface areas in karst and non-karst settings, but few quantitative studies have taken place in caves. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of timber harvesting and development upon the caves and karst of southeastern Alaska …

Geogram 2003, David J. Keeling Editor, Wku Department Of Geography And Geology

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Publications

No abstract provided.

Dissolved Humic Substances: Characterization Of Their Sorption Onto Iron Hydroxide Aluminum Hydroxide Kaolinite And Smectite, Sarah E. Diebel

OES Theses and Dissertations

Humic (HA) and fulvic (FA) acids participate in many geochemical processes and the mechanisms of their sorption to colloidal surfaces are numerous, indicating these substances are complex and heterogeneous. The current study focuses on the interactions of the Fe hydroxide (FE), Al hydroxide, Kaolinite (KA) and Smectite (SM) and these naturally occurring organic acids using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and DOC analysis at pH 4. FTIR was used for the initial functional group characterization, as well as the comparison of before and after adsorption spectra of the HA and FA. DOC examined the amounts of HA and FA adsorbed …

Spatial And Temporal Variability In The Amount And Source Of Dissolved Organic Carbon: Implications For Ultraviolet Exposure In Amphibian Habitats, Paul D. Brooks, Catherine M. O'Reilly, Stephen A. Diamond, Don H. Campbell, Roland Knapp, David Bradford, Paul Stephen Corn, Blake Hossack, Kathy Tonnessen

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The amount, chemical composition, and source of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), together with in situ ultraviolet (UV-B) attenuation, were measured at 1–2 week intervals throughout the summers of 1999, 2000, and 2001 at four sites in Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado). Eight additional sites, four in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park/John Muir Wilderness (California) and four in Glacier National Park (Montana), were sampled during the summer of 2000. Attenuation of UV-B was significantly related to DOC concentrations over the three years in Rocky Mountain (R² = 0.39, F = 25.71, P < 0.0001) and across all parks in 2000 (R² = 0.44, F = 38.25, P …

Day 3. Wednesday, August 13, 2003: Lighthawk Flyover, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Energy Field Tour 2003 (August 11-16)

11 pages (includes some color illustrations and maps).

Contains references.

Sheep Updates 2003 - Pastures, Ed Barrett-Lennard, Hayley Norman, Robyn Dynes, David Masters, David Henry, Stephen Gherardi, Graham Donald, Asoka Edirisinghe, Chris Oldham, Richard Smith, Joanne Sneddon, Mike Hyder, Andrew Thompson, Kazue Tanaka, Roy Latta, Chris Matthews, Brad Nutt, Angela Loi, Tim Wiley

Sheep Updates

This session covers seven papers from different authors: 1. Pastures for saline land, Ed Barrett-Lennard 1Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Hayley Norman, Robyn Dynes and David Masters CSIRO Livestock Industries, Centre for Mediterranean Agricultural Research, Floreat Park, 2. Feeding value - the essential link between pastures and animals CSIRO Livestock Industries, Centre for Environmental and Life Sciences 3. ‘Pastures from space’ - how do we do it, how well do we do it and what do producers think about it? Stephen Gherardi Department of Agriculture Western Australia Graham Donald Asoka Edirisinghe Dave Henry CSIRO Livestock Industries Chris Oldham Department of …

Agenda: Energy Field Tour 2003, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center

Energy Field Tour 2003 (August 11-16)

Congressional staff tour held August 11-16, 2003

Summary: Binder of assorted articles, maps, brochures and other materials prepared for participants of the tour

Contents:

MONDAY, AUGUST 11, 2003: BLUE SPRUCE PEAKER PLANT: University of Colorado Natural Resources Law Center : congressional staff tour of Blue Spruce Energy Center / Peggy Duxbury -- 'Power Struggle', National Journal, June 27, 2003 / Margaret Kritz -- 'Calpine's Blue Spruce Energy Center begins commercial operation', Calpine press release, April 17, 2003 -- NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LAB: NREL at a glance -- NREL technologies -- SHOSHONE HYDROELECTRIC PLANT: 'River District Board supports spring Shoshone call …

Landscape Change In The Southern Piedmont: Challenges, Solutions, And Uncertainty Across Scales, Michael J. Conroy, Craig R. Allen, James T. Peterson, Lowell Pritchard, Clinton T. Moore

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The southern Piedmont of the southeastern United States epitomizes the complex and seemingly intractable problems and hard decisions that result from uncontrolled urban and suburban sprawl. Here we consider three recurrent themes in complicated problems involving complex systems: (1) scale dependencies and cross-scale, often nonlinear relationships; (2) resilience, in particular the potential for complex systems to move to alternate stable states with decreased ecological and/or economic value; and (3) uncertainty in the ability to understand and predict outcomes, perhaps particularly those that occur as a result of human impacts. We consider these issues in the context of landscape-level decision making, …

Ashfall Historic Park: Field Trip 5, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Ashfall Fossill Beds: A State Historical Park. Brochure. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and University of Nebraska State Museum

Research Reports, 1978. Projects: A Miocene Rhinoceros Herd Buried in Volcanic Ash. Grant Recipient: Michael R. Voorhies, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska.

Geologic Framework of the Niobrara River Drainage Basin and Adjacent Areas in South Dakota Generally East of the 100th Meridian West Longitude and West of the Missouri River Robert F. Diffendal, Jr. and Michael R. Voorhies. Nebraska Geological Survey Report of Investigations, number 9.